SaskPower looking to keep province powered with extended layups

As the way the province is powering itself changes, SaskPower is looking to make sure that there's enough energy to go around.

That's the reasoning for the recent announcement, where they stated that Unit 4 at the Boundary Dam Power Station would be put into layup for longer.

That will now last until March 31, 2024, or until the Great Plains Power Station in Moose Jaw goes into service. 

SaskPower spokesperson Joel Cherry details just that might necessitate the old unit being spun up again.

"When needed it takes a couple of days to spin it up to provide power when we need it. So in cases when there's a higher demand for power, in the summer or in the winter, or in cases where we've had planned or unplanned outages at other facilities during the past year and a bit, we've used that facility to backstop the rest of our system."

How the system is fired up can depend on just what use SaskPower has for the unit.

"In some cases, as little as two days, we're able to spin those facilities back up, or if we have more notice, if we're planning for a period of sustained higher demand, or for planned or unplanned outages at other baseload facilities," said Cherry, "It can take up to a week to do that. We're not retiring the facilities completely, they're not running all the time, but they are available when we need them."

The end goal for having units like this one is to make sure there's a dependable caseload for Saskatchewan, whether that be for new facilites or renewable projects.

"It provides 139 megawatts of baseload power, which is useful of us when we're trying to provide a reliable supply of power to our customers. We have Great Plains Power Station coming online, which is going to come online, that is 360 megawatts of power,"s aid Cherry, "But until we have that facility and other somcing online - we also have some renewable projects - we want to make sure we have some other power available to backstop it."

Meanwhile, Unit 5 will be kept in a layup status until Unit 6’s planned retirement date of December 31, 2027, when its condition will be reassessed.